7.4.18

Immigration Raid Takes 97 Into Custody at Tennessee Plant

NASHVILLE, TENN. —A federal immigration raid that took 97 people into custody at a
Tennessee meat processing plant may be the biggest employment crackdown
under President Donald Trump’s administration, civil rights activists
said Friday.
Eleven people were arrested on criminal charges and 86 were detained
for being in the country illegally, U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement spokeswoman Tammy Spicer said in a statement Friday.
The Thursday raid on Southeastern Provision, a meat processing plant
in Bean Station in eastern Tennessee, is the largest single worksite
immigration enforcement action since the administration of President
George W. Bush, said Jessie Hahn, labor and employment policy attorney
at the National Immigration Law Center.
“This is part of the stepped-up Trump mass deportation enforcement agenda for sure,” Hahn said.

​Cracking down on employers
The current administration has promised to crack down on employers
who hire immigrants living in the country illegally, and several raids
have taken place across the country. A total of 21 people were arrested
after immigration agents raided 7-Eleven stores nationwide in January.
A Tennessee activist said the processing plant raid is another example of the emphasis on enforcement.
“What we saw here, while it is the largest and certainly credibly
egregious raid, it does fit in the larger practice and patterns of the
Trump administration of targeting workers, indiscriminately arresting
immigrants and really terrorizing communities across the country,” said
Stephanie Teatro, co-executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and
Refugee Rights Coalition.
Spicer declined to confirm whether it is largest workplace raid under the current president.Suspected tax evasion
Officials with ICE, Homeland Security, the IRS Criminal Investigation
Division and the Tennessee Highway Patrol executed a federal search
warrant on the meat processing plant Thursday morning, Spicer said.
During the search, Homeland Security officials encountered 97 people
who are subject to removal from the U.S., she said. Ten workers were
arrested on federal criminal charges, and another was arrested on a
state charge. Of the 86 people arrested and placed in deportation
proceedings, ICE kept 54 in detention and released 32 from custody,
Spicer said.
An affidavit filed with the search warrant and signed by a special
agent with the IRS says the government has probable cause to believe
that the company and its owners have committed tax evasion and are
employing immigrants in the country illegally. An undercover police
officer was hired at the company using a false name and he was paid in
cash, the affidavit filed by IRS Special Agent Nicholas Worsham said.
Court records say James Brantley is the president of the business and
his wife, Pamela, is listed as an employee. Public records do not list
their phone number. The Associated Press left phone and email messages
with company but they were not returned.
Several children saw both parents placed in detention and many did
not show up for school Friday because of fear in the immigrant
community, Teatro said.
Many of the people employed at the plant had worked there for years
and are long-standing members of this rural community, she said.
Rights activists have mobilized to help with donations and legal
assistance and people have rallied to help the workers and their
families, Teatro said.
“That’s because in the face of the threats of the Trump
administration, communities have been organizing and coming together to
defend their rights and we’re not going to stop organizing, and the
community isn’t going to stop standing with these families until they’re
returned home.”This story was written by the Associated Press.